Ex-Chelsea and Real Madrid star handed jail term

He returned the amount and pleaded guilty to the charges, which the court said in a statement lead to his sentence being reduced from the Spanish public prosecutor's recommendation of 12 months in prison with a 300,000 euro fine.

Spanish law is such that any sentence under two years for a non-violent crime rarely requires a defendant without previous convictions to serve jail time.

The court praised Carvalho for his full acknowledgement of the circumstances and compliance in proceedings, alongside repaying the full fee of €545,981.03.

Messi and his father Jorge were found guilty in July 2016 of three counts of defrauding the Spanish tax authority out of £3.59m - 4.1 million euros - by hiding earnings from image rights in offshore accounts in Uruguay and Belize from 2007 to 2009.

Considering the lucrative implications of a move to China, it seems hard to imagine that he will have any problem paying that, and Squawka believe there is very little chance he will serve any of his seven-month prison sentence.